State Rep. Betty DeBoef, R-What Cheer, said it’s time for a change in the state Legislature and she wants to be a part of it.

DeBoef is seeking her fifth term in the statehouse as the District 76 representative. She said she would like to see fellow Republicans regain the majority so they can fight for issues “that will help Iowa grow as a state.”

One of her top priorities is putting a halt to a collective bargaining bill that was passed by the 2008 legislative session but subsequently vetoed by Gov. Culver.

“That would be a very bad thing for Iowa to have. It would be a bad change to Chapter 20, which deals with public employees,” she said.

DeBoef said she believes the bill would take away the rights of taxpayers to have their elected representatives make decisions in regards to a whole range of issues that involve public employees. She believes the bill would give the power to union negotiators and arbitrators to determine things like insurance providers, retirement packages, school curriculum, class size and more.

“I believe our representative democracy dictates that the people elect city, county officials and school board members to make those decisions. This collective bargaining bill would take away from them,” she said.

Last session, DeBoef also voted against the Iowa SmokeFree Air Act.

“I voted against the smoking ban and my premise is that takes away from property owners and businesses to make those decisions themselves,” she said. “I would be in favor of seeing it come back up again for debate. It is an invasion of our rights.”

DeBoef is also concerned about the state’s budget. She said the Democratic majority chose to amend the laws last year in order to spend more money.

“The legislative leadership is supposed to spend money based on the December revenue estimates,” she said.

Instead, “money was spent that shouldn’t have been.

“It would have been nice after having some of the catastrophes we had this year if the money was still there, but it’s not,” she said.

DeBoef is being challenged by Democrat Jim Van Scoyoc of Victor. Van Scoyoc did not return any of the Courier’s requests for comment.

District 76 covers Keokuk County and a portion of Iowa, Poweshiek and Tama counties.

Scott Niles can be reached at (641) 683-5360 or via e-mail at sjniles@mchsi.com.